ORLANDO, Fla. – More than a year after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper crashed on State Road 408 as he was driving home from an overnight shift, authorities have identified multiple factors that led to the fatal wreck.
Tracy Vickers, who was posthumously promoted to sergeant, died at the scene of the crash on Sept. 27, 2019 in Orlando.
A 105-page traffic homicide investigation report released by FHP on Thursday shows 31-year-old Vickers was driving 73 mph in a 55 mph zone when he crashed into a Flash-Rite maintenance of traffic truck that was parked on the shoulder as part of a lane closure in the area.
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The patrol car became wedged under the unoccupied work truck, causing both vehicles to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction and causing the truck to hit a concrete barrier with the Dodge Charger still stuck underneath.
Vickers, who died at the scene, was the only person injured.
Though it wasn’t raining or foggy at the time and the road was dry, the report did note that it was dark out and that portion of SR 408 was not well-lit.
Documents show workers were in the process of removing traffic drums and had already taken down a sign warning motorists of the closure when the crash occurred. A trooper who was supposed to be stationed in the area with his lights on to make drivers aware of the closure left the scene about a minute before the fatal crash and was about half a mile away.
One of those workers said when he noticed the trooper leave as they were still taking down the lane closure, he told his crewmembers that they needed to act fast to remove the remaining drums since traffic was now live.
The worker tried to stop the trooper from leaving the scene by yelling and waiving his hands but the trooper didn’t see him, records show. He estimated that they only needed traffic diverted for about two more minutes so they could finish picking up the drums and fully reopen the lane.
That same worker also had to yell for one of his crewmates to get out of the way so he wouldn’t get hit as Vickers drove toward them.
The trooper who left the road closure scene in the minute or two leading up to the crash said he didn’t believe that Flash-Rite truck that Vickers hit was in the travel lane even though it was, according to the documents.
Video recovered from Vickers’s patrol car, which has not been released to the public, reportedly shows that the yellow flashing lights on the truck were obstructed from view by a worker who was carrying a traffic drum and weren’t visible until it was too late.
"Both the worker and the drum he was carrying were blocking the light from view. The first time that (the truck’s) overhead yellow warning lights can be seen in the video was 1 second before impact. In the moments leading up to the crash, these lights were being blocked by the top portion of the arrow board and partially by the drums that were being placed in the rear of (the truck),” the report read.
The advance warning sign had also been removed by that point. There was no evidence to indicate that Vickers tried to brake or slow down.
As part of the investigation into the crash, authorities spoke with Vickers’s fiancee, who told them that her birthday was on Sept. 26, 2019 so she and Vickers went to Walt Disney World for dinner to celebrate. After that trip to the theme park, Vickers went to bed to rest before his shift started at 10 p.m.
That was his fourth overnight shift in a row and the day before, he ended up staying three hours late due to a call working an 11-hour shift before he went to Disney.
According to the documents, it’s unknown whether Vickers was tired or distracted at the time of the crash, although records show he wasn’t using his cellphone.
The report ends by listing the factors authorities believe led to the wreck.
“There were four main factors which contributed to this fatal crash. Flash-Rite workers removed the advance warning signs before (the truck), its arrow board trailer and Flash-Rite workers were clear of the inside lane. (The trooper who was working the lane closure) left the construction zone before (the truck) was removed and the roadway was clear for traffic. Both the overhead warning lights on (the truck) and its rear strobing lights were obscured by Trooper Vickers’s view as he approached it from the rear. Trooper Vickers was speeding and did not react to (the truck), which was partially blocking the inside lane of State Road 408,” the report concludes.